More than 13,000 PC Magazine readers completed our June 2003 survey on user satisfaction with ISPs.

In general, respondents are much more satisfied with broadband than dial-upespecially with broadband's connection speed. But readers sent a clear message: Broadband costs too much. The average score of 6.0 for satisfaction with rates (on a scale from 1 to 10) is very low, though unchanged from our 2002 survey.

All other average broadband scores are down slightly from last year. Satisfaction with connection reliability has dropped the most, from 8.6 in 2002 to 7.7. This appears to be at least partly due to a honeymoon effect. This year, we noticed that the average score for overall satisfaction is 8.3 among those who have had broadband for one to three months; the number gradually drops to 7.8 among those who have had high-speed connections for more than six years.

For statistically reliable results, we report only on ISPs that received at least 50 responses. To calculate each ISP's standing on each measure, we use a statistical t-test to compare the ISP's score against the average of all ISPs' scores and determine whether the difference is significant at a 95 percent confidence level. We derive the Readers' Report Card by assigning each ISP point values for the eight tabulated measures and converting the result to a grade; A- or better gets our Readers' Choice award.

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